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Jerry Ross Barrish is an American artist, film maker and bail bondsman. He was born in San Francisco in 1939 to Bennie Barrish, a boxer, and Jeanne Barrish. Jerry Barrish was well known in the 60's as the owner of Barrish Bail Bonds, which had the slogan "Don't perish in jail, call Barrish for bail!" Beyond his bail bond business, Barrish wrote and directed three feature films from 1972-1989. After his career in the film industry, Barrish began creating sculptures from found materials, mainly plastic, and occasionally works with bronze as well.

Early Life
Jerry Ross Barrish was born to Bennie and Jeanne Barrish in 1939 in San Fransisco. As at the elder son Barrish was quiet and observant. Barrish remembers growing up as lower working class, with both his father and mother being gamblers. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, Jerry joined the U.S army. He was sent to Germany, where he enjoyed playing poker like he learned from his mother. When he returned home in 1961, he had about $10,000, a surprising amount for a soldier. Soon after his return, Barrish went with his father to a celebration for Mickey Cohen's release from Alcatraz. While there, Barrish had a chance meeting with Cohen's Los Angeles bail bondsman, who suggested Barrish look into the bail bonds business. Despite knowing nothing about the business, Barrish started Barrish Bail Bonds the next day. .

Bail Bond Career
Barrish started his own bail bond company, Barrish Bail Bonds, in San Francisco in 1961. He opened up shop during the Free Speech Movement protest at U.C. Berkeley's Sproul Hall. His bail bond business became famous in its own right during the Sproul Hall Berkeley Protests. Jerry arranged bail for 865 people that were arrested during the protest, making him a local hero. . Throughout his career as a bail bondsman Jerry posted bail for a number of high profile individuals including the early Black Panther leaders Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, along with Marilyn Chambers, a prominent adult film actress, the Mitchell brothers, Dennis banks, and the Native Americans arrested in the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz. . After 52 years located on Bryant Street, across from the San Francisco Hall of Justice, Barrish Bail Bonds closed its door in 2013.

Film Career
Barrish enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970, on the G.I. Bill, at age 31. In 1972 Barrish created his first film, "I will Be,"based on Harry Chapin's song "Sniper." Two years later Barrish had a role in a film directed by George Kuchar, called "I Married a Heathen". During his time at SFAI, Barrish created six films, receiving a BFA in 1974 and an MFA in 1976. From 1977-1982, Barrish wrote and directed "Dan's Motel," a feature film set in a seedy motel on the San Mateo Coast. The film opens with a man who romanticizes he is a gangster, but grows to tell three separate stories about the motel guests. The film premiered at New Directors/New Films at New York City's Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1982. Only two years later Barrish wrote and directed his 1984 film "Recent Sorrows". The film followed the lives of two couples, one straight and one gay, that fell apart for the same reasons. The amount of time and money that Jerry poured into his film projects paid off in 1986 when he was awarded a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst / German Academic Exchange Service) residency in Berlin. While enjoying nine months of the artist life in Germany, Jerry wrote two scripts, one of which he reworked upon his return to the United States. This project became "Shuttlecock" which was release in 1989. "Shuttlecock" followed the life of a woman going through therapy and how it affected her love life. The film had its world premier in Berlin in 1989, and showed in many film festivals in the U.s and Europe, but failed to be picked up for commercial distribution. This marked the end of Barrish's career as an independent filmmaker. Since his first on screen appearance, in the 1974 production "I Married A Heathen," Barrish has made appearances in several films including: "Wings of Desire" (1987), "Rembrant Laughing" (1989), and "Until the End of the World" (Wim Wenders, 1991). Barrish appeared most recently in the documentary "Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Barrish" (2014), which documents Barrish's personal history, art career, and his success in winning the commission for a bronze statue at the Hunter's Point Shipyard.

Sculpture Career
Jerry Barrish first experimented with sculpture in a friend's studio, working mainly with metal, from 1968-1969. After this stint in the studio, Barrish enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute to he focus his artistic endeavors on film. After his final film in 1989, Barrish returned his attention to sculpture. In the same year of his final film's release, Jerry started to collect plastic debris from the beach in front of his Pacifica home. He used the plastic he found to create sculptures of humans and animals, making him a "figurative modernist" in the words of Paul Karlstrom (West Coast Director for the Smithsonian Institute). Since those fateful days on the beach in 1989, Jerry has made a prolific body of work, and has been a part of numerous collections including:

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 * - Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, California
 * - Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
 * - de Saisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California
 * - di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature, Napa, California
 * - Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California
 * - Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, California
 * - The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
 * - Saginaw Museum of Art, Saginaw, Michigan
 * - San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
 * - South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, South Dakota
 * - Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California
 * - University of Arizona Memorial Student Union, Tucson, Arizona
 * - University of California Davis, Nelson Gallery, Davis, California
 * - University of California Santa Cruz, Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, Santa Cruz, California

Jerry also has a decades long list of group exhibitions dating back to 1989, in addition to an extensive list of solo exhibitions, most notably:

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 * - 2016-17 Transmission Gallery, Oakland, California
 * - 2016      Smith Andersen Editions, "Nuts & Chews," Palo Alto, California
 * - 2015      Mendocino Art Center, Nichols Gallery, Mendocino, California
 * - 2014-15 South Dakota Art Museum, "Cast & Crew," Brookings, South Dakota
 * - 2014      Loveland Museum, "Cast & Crew," Loveland, Colorado
 * - 2013      Skyline College Gallery, "Cast & Crew," San Bruno, California
 * - 2009    Museum of Art & History @ McPherson Center, Santa Cruz, California (catalog)
 * - 2009   Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California "Art Drecko: The Mad Asssemblage of Jerry Ross Barrish," Fresno, California (catalog)
 * - 2007   “Ein Amerikaner in Schwerin,”  Schwerin, Germany  (catalog)
 * - 2003   Dominican University of California, San Marco Gallery, San Rafael, CA
 * - 2002   South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, So. Dakota,  “Dames,” (catalog)
 * - 2000   Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, California
 * - 2000   American River College, “Plastic/Plastik,” Sacramento, California
 * - 1997  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, Fort Mason
 * - 1991   LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles, California

Beyond the extensive collection and exhibition lists Jerry won a San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's commission for a sculpture at Hunter's Point Shipyards. The bronze sculpture, "Bayview Horn," stands about 16 feet high. His journey, from first application to installation of the piece, can be seen in "Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish".

Other Links

 * http://www.jerrybarrish.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=18848&Akey=MNDGM7X3
 * http://www.sculpture.org/portfolio/sculptorPage.php?sculptor_id=1002332
 * http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0057590/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1